Found near Wedderburn in 1981, the ‘Pride of Australia‘ was the largest Victorian gold nugget on display in Australia.¹ Its name was a tribute to its malformed shape, which was said to resemble the continent of Australia (albeit without Tasmania).

In 1985, the State Bank Victoria forked out $250,000 to purchase the nugget to stop it falling into the hands of overseas collectors. The nugget was displayed at the bank’s Bourke Street headquarters until it was borrowed by the Museum of Victoria for a bicentennial exhibition. ²

The exhibition, entitled ‘Bonanza’, was a tribute to the role of gold in Victoria. The nugget was displayed in a case close to the Swanston Street entrance, which the museum shared with the State Library of Victoria. ³

Once the exhibition finished, the bank agreed the museum could have the nugget on permanent loan. It was moved to the Stawell Gallery (now the Library’s Cowen Gallery) to form part of an exhibition called ‘The Story of Victoria’.

The nugget remained on display in the gallery for several years until one winter’s night in 1991, a daring raid was conducted on the museum.

It was around 9.15pm and a security guard had just finished clearing the Planetarium of visitors. He was walking up Latrobe Street when he noticed a light shining from a doorway. Upon investigation, he discovered a panel of the fire door had been broken. The thieves had reached in through the hole they’d created and turned the door handle to let themselves in.⁴

A museum van had been parked in the driveway, giving them the perfect cover.⁵

Once inside the building, the thieves made their way through the North Rotunda and into the Stawell Gallery, where the gold nugget was on display in the far corner. Using a sledgehammer, they smashed their way into the display case and made off with the nugget, leaving a one thousand dollar commemorative gold coin – also on display in the case – behind. The sledgehammer was found discarded underneath the museum van the following day.⁶

Police estimated that the entire operation had lasted just three minutes.⁷

Security around the gold nugget had been tight. An alarm was attached to the door of the display case, and there was a separate vibration alarm housed inside. Both alarms had failed to go off, even when the case was smashed open by a sledgehammer. When the alarms were checked the next day, both of them were found to be in working order, leading police to suspect it was an inside job.⁸

A security camera had also been trained on the display case, but when police checked it for evidence, they discovered it had failed to record any footage of the crime.⁹

The theft had been executed at an auspicious time: a new $470,000 security system was due to be installed in the days following the raid. ¹⁰

Furthermore, the Library (which was co-located with the museum at the time) was in the middle of a redevelopment. The media reported that dozens of contractors were roaming the site, making it difficult to keep track of who was accessing the building. ¹¹

Police criminal investigation and major crime squads launched a major investigation into the theft. They interviewed all the museum staff and security officers who were on duty that night, but neither the thieves, nor the gold, were ever found.

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Dedicated to the ladies

References

1. Catalano, Antonio, ‘Nugget theft raises security fear’, The Age, 1 September 1991, p 5
2. Maslen, Geoff, ‘The glittering heist’, The Sydney Morning Herald, Spectrum, 7 September 1991, p 38
3. As above
4. As above
5. As above
6. As above
7. As above
8. Catalano, Antonio, ‘Nugget theft raises security fear’, The Age, 1 September 1991, p 5
9. As above
10. As above
11. Maslen, Geoff, ‘The glittering heist’, The Sydney Morning Herald, Spectrum, 7 September 1991, p 38